TRUTH
DR. JIM DIXON
DECEMBER 18, 1994
JOHN 14:6, JOHN 18:37
What is truth? That is the question that Pontius Pilate put to Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago in the praetorium of the governor’s residence. What is truth? Pilate did not wait for the answer. In his mind, no answer was possible. He simply turned and walked away.
God does not want us to make the same mistake. Jesus said, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). The Bible tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). This morning, our subject is truth.
The word truth biblically has two meanings. There is a Hebrew meaning and a Greek meaning. We will first look at the Hebrew meaning of the word truth. The Hebrew word for truth is the word emmet. This word has the meaning of integrity. To be a person of truth is to be a person of integrity. This was the primary Hebrew concept of truth.
In the year AD 452, the city of Rome had major problems. The Roman Empire had just gone through 200 years of decline. The Roman legion, once proud, was a little more than a police force. The financial condition of the empire was desperate. But the greatest problem facing the city of Rome in the year 452 was Atilla the Hun. Atilla the Hun was marching on Rome. He had an insatiable thirst for territory and blood and had reached the outskirts of Rome. He was on the hills outside of Rome with an army of 300,000 horsemen.
The Roman Empire at its zenith would have had a difficult time dealing with such a military force. But on June 12, 452, Pope Leo I and four assistants went in a carriage outside the city of Rome up to the top of the hill to meet with Atilla the Hun to talk him into not attacking the city of Rome. They met with Attila the Hun for fifteen minutes. After those fifteen minutes, Atilla the Hun turned his armies around, marched away from the city of Rome, and never came back.
What did Pope Leo I say? He certainly could not appeal to Atilla the Hun’s Christianity. Historians tell us that Pope Leo I told Atilla the Hun there was a plague in the city of Rome. If his armies attacked the city, more men would be lost by disease than by the sword. Atilla the Hun believed him because throughout the world Pope Leo I was known as a devout Christian of deep integrity. He was known as a man of truth. Pope Leo I was indeed one of the greatest Christian leaders the Christian world has known, and the truth was that there was a plague in the city of Rome. Pope Leo I was telling the truth.
People of integrity tell the truth. People of integrity are believable. People of integrity are faithful and true. Sadly, there is not a lot of integrity in our world. Even for us as Christians, though we perhaps refrain from speaking lies, sometimes all of us have a tendency to live a lie, to try to hide the darkness that is in us. The psychologist Scott Peck wrote the book People of the Lie. People of the lie are people who think they have no sin. But if we have integrity, we see ourselves as we really are. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ has perfect integrity. He is the truth. He is faithful and true. You can count on him. In Him, there is no darkness at all.
The word truth in the Hebrew, this word emmet, is a word that was generally a covenant word. The concept of truth, the concept of integrity in the Hebrew mind was generally related to the whole context of covenant. When you entered into a covenant, if you were of the truth, if you had integrity, you honored the terms of that covenant. It is what it meant to be a person of the truth, a person who was faithful, a person who was honest to honor the covenant.
Jesus Christ has offered a new covenant to the world. That is why the second half of the Bible is called the New Testament. It is the new covenant. We celebrate that covenant as we come to this table this morning. The new covenant in Jesus’s blood. The terms of that new covenant are simple and clear. Jesus says to the world, “If you believe in me, if you place me on the throne of your life, if you accept me as Lord, and if you embrace me as your Savior from sin, by my shed blood I will forgive you of your sin. I will bring you into my kingdom. I will make you children of God. I will give you a kingdom to live for. I will use every circumstance of this life for your sanctification. And ultimately, I will bring you to the gates of heaven and give you eternal life.” That is the new covenant if you would believe. And we can believe Him. We can believe Him because He is the truth. He is a man of integrity, a person of profound integrity. He is faithful and true.
When I was growing up, I doubted my salvation. I asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior when I was five years old. I was with my mother in the living room of our home. I knelt with her and asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. But in those early years, I had a hard time believing that I was really saved, that I really belonged to Jesus Christ, that I was really bound for heaven. I would go forward at church during the altar calls.
I grew up in a Presbyterian church, a very evangelical one. Whenever we had visiting evangelists, they would give an altar call. Oftentimes the visiting evangelists would tell the congregation that they might die tonight. I remember that statement being made over and over again. “You might leave this building and die tonight. You might leave this building and be run over by a car tonight.” They made it sound like it really was going to happen, and it scared me. Then they would say, “Are you a hundred percent sure that you’re going to heaven? You may have accepted Christ before, but are you a hundred percent sure? I want you to come down here tonight.” And I would.
My heart would start pounding, and I would become nervous. I would walk to the front of the church as the congregation was singing “Just as I Am” for about fifty verses of that song. I would always go forward, and I would do it again and again and again. My parents saw this and finally got tired of it. One day my dad took me aside at home and said, “No more altar calls. You have asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior. You can believe him. I do not want you going forward anymore.”
A couple of weeks later, somebody was speaking at church (though I do not remember who it was). I was probably ten years old at the time. I was sitting with my mom and dad. The speaker gave an altar call. He talked about how we might die that night. He said, “Are you a hundred percent sure?” I was starting to get nervous. The congregation was singing “Just as I Am.” I wanted to go forward again, but I was more afraid of my dad than I was of hell. So I stayed in my seat. Then I saw my dad get up and go down front. I thought if my dad could go down front I could too, and I started to walk down the center aisle. I did not realize that my dad was actually one of the counselors. When my dad turned around and saw me coming, the look on his face was unbelievable.
The whole issue was one of truth. The whole issue was about integrity. Could I really believe what Jesus had said? Could I really believe that He had forgiven me? Could I really believe that He had made me a child of God? Could I really believe that He had brought me into His kingdom? Could I really believe He loved me? Could I really believe that He was going to give me heaven itself? Could I really believe those things? It took time for me to believe, yet the message of scripture is clear. Jesus Christ is the truth.
The Hebrew word, emmet, the word for truth means integrity, faithful, and honest. Jesus Christ keeps His word and calls His people to be people of integrity. I would not be faithful this morning if I did not tell you that. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have been called to be a person of integrity, a person who keeps covenant. You have entered into this new covenant in Jesus Christ. You need to take that covenant seriously. You need to seek to live faithfully.
Some of us have entered into marriage covenants. When I married Barbara, I said to her, “I, Jim, take you Barb, to be my wedded wife. And I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.” It is a covenant, and I have been called to integrity. Integrity does not simply mean that you do not seek divorce. Integrity means you honor day by day the commitments made. The minister asked me when Barb and I were married, “Jim, will you have Barb to be your wife? Will you give your life to her in all love and honor, in all duty and service, in all faith and tenderness to live with her and cherish her according to the ordinance of God and the holy bond of marriage? Will you?” I said, “I will.” That is a covenant. We are to be people of integrity. Christ reminds His people of this this morning.
We entered into a covenant with the church when we joined the church. Each of you who have joined this church have been asked if you would be a faithful member of this congregation, supporting this church with your prayers, with your abilities, and with your financial resources. You made that commitment. You made that covenant, and you are called to be people of integrity.
We entered into a covenant when we baptized or dedicated our children. We were asked if we promised to rear our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be people of integrity
The first meaning of truth is the Hebrew word emmet, which means integrity, particularly in the context of covenant. A second meaning to truth is the Greek word aletheia. The meaning here is reality. In the Greek world, truth was reality. Truth referred to that which was real. Truth referred to how things were, how things are. E=mc2 is a scientific truth. It is reality. Two plus two equals four. This is a mathematical truth. That is reality. The Bible tells us there is also spiritual reality. “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life” (1 John 5:12). That is truth. That is spiritual reality. The Bible calls us to moral and ethical truths that reflect reality, moral and ethical reality.
Sir Henry Layard was an archeologist who discovered the ancient city of Nineveh. In the year 1840, he was working in an archeological dig in the region of ancient Assyria. Layard was doing some work in the palace wall of Asher Nasser when he discovered a piece of ancient Assyrian sculpture. He knew it was very valuable; and although he knew it was of great value, he did not keep the sculpture for himself. He gave it to one of his financial backers. The financial backer was a wealthy man who did not fully understand the value of such an ancient piece of art. He took it back to Europe with him. As he was building a country mansion, he put the sculpture into one of the walls of his mansion. Years and decades passed, and the sculpture remained in the wall of this wealthy man’s home. In the year 1923, the mansion, having passed through a number of generations, was sold. The building became a boy’s school, and the walls of the building were reconfigured.
The wall that had the sculpture in it became part of the cafeteria. A few years later, the building was redesigned in terms of use, and the wall with the ancient Assyrian sculpture became part of the gymnasium. Through the years, the sculpture and the wall had been painted time and again. Finally, in 1957, the principal of the school noticed the sculpture in the wall and decided to ask a local art expert to determine its value. The local art expert looked at it and said it was bogus. It was not real. It was made of plaster and nothing came of it.
In 1993, last year, a visiting professor of archeology from America, who was visiting that school in Europe, saw this ancient Assyrian sculpture in the wall. He determined that it was real, that it was legitimate. He had an archeological team take the sculpture out of the wall. Two months ago it was sold at Christie’s Auction House in London, England, for the price of $15 million.
In the world of art and artifacts, values are constantly changing. It depends on what the so-called experts say. It depends on what people are willing to pay. What is true in the world of art and artifacts is also true in the world of morals and ethics. Moral and ethical values are constantly changing. At one time in our culture, homosexuality, for instance, was considered illegal and immoral. But that has changed. We reached a point in our culture where homosexual behavior was deemed legal, but still immoral. Now we have reached the point in our culture where homosexual behavior is deemed to be neither illegal nor immoral. It is deemed legal and moral..
We live in a changing world. Moral and ethical values are constantly being rewritten. They are constantly being restructured. About a week ago, Surgeon General of the United States Joycelyn Elders stepped down at the request of President Clinton. He asked her to step down as surgeon general because of numerous controversial remarks she had made. She had referenced the Catholic church and its love affair with the fetus. She had advocated that gay couples have the right to adopt. Most recently were her controversial statements about masturbation and education. After she stepped down, she made this statement, “I’ve always tried to speak the truth, but truth as I see it and truth as you see it may be two different things.” This reflects the world we live in. It is a world of moral and ethical confusion. Jesus Christ said, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37).
You can believe in Him. It is a choice. You can believe in Jesus Christ, or, like Pontius Pilate, you can turn and walk away. If you are a Christian, if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you believe He is the truth, you will find moral and ethical reality in Him. You will find spiritual reality in Him. You will find all reality in Him. Jesus Christ said, “I am the truth.” This is a profound statement. Actually, He said, “ego eimi he hodos kai he aletheia kai he zoe”—I am the way, I am the truth. I am the life.
That statement is more important than any other statement we will ever hear. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:6-9). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
What an incredible moment. What an incredible statement. Jesus Christ is the truth. All we need to know about God, we see in Jesus Christ. All we need to know about ethics and morals we find in Jesus Christ. All we need to know for salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the truth, integrity, reality.
Let us have a word of prayer before we have communion. Lord Jesus, You are indeed the way, the truth, and the life. Lord, we thank You for the new covenant that we celebrate this morning in Your blood. We thank You that You shed Your blood for us. Your body was broken for us so that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Lord, we know that You are faithful, that You are true, that You have integrity. We thank You for this salvation and this eternal life. We commit ourselves anew to You this morning. Lord, we know that You are reality. We see reality through You. Apart from You, life does not make sense. We commit ourselves anew to the moral and ethical truth that You taught. We commit ourselves anew to You and to Your kingdom. And we do these things, Lord Jesus, in Your great and matchless name. Amen.